Tarmac nightmare shows delays are still a problem

WASHINGTON 
Being stuck for hours on a stuffy, stinky plane at the airport - every passenger's nightmare - was supposed to be a thing of the past, thanks to the government's threat of huge fines against the airlines. Well, dream on.

Last weekend's weather stranding of hundreds of travelers, some for as long as seven hours, on an airport tarmac in Connecticut have underscored the limitations of federal rules designed to protect passengers from such ordeals.

Under Transportation Department rules that went into effect in April 2010, most tarmac delays at U.S. airports are limited to three hours for domestic flights and four hours for international flights. Airlines that violate the limit risk fines as high as $27,500. Exceptions to the time limits are allowed only for safety, security or if air traffic control advises the pilot that returning to the terminal would disrupt airport operations.

Industry officials said the tarmac delays appear to prove the point they've been making all along - that they're often powerless to prevent such incidents. But a consumer advocate said that at least one airline - JetBlue Airways - doesn't appear to have made the kind of advance handling arrangements that could have spared its passengers the misery of hours and hours of sitting in cramped airline seats.

A rare October snowstorm and equipment problems at Newark's Liberty International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport forced 23 planes to divert to the much smaller Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Conn., on Saturday. Passengers on at least three JetBlue planes and one American Airlines flight from Paris reported being confined for seven hours or more. Food and water ran out, toilets backed up and tempers snapped.

The captain of JetBlue Flight 504, which was diverted en route to Newark from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., begged for help to get his plane to a gate.

"We can't seem to get any help from our own company. I apologize for this, but is there any way you can get a tug and a tow bar out here to us and get us towed somewhere to a gate or something?" the captain can be heard pleading with authorities over his radio on audio provided by LiveATC.net.

"I have a paraplegic onboard that needs to come off," he said later. "I have a diabetic on here that's got an issue. It's a list of things. I just gotta get some help,"

The Transportation Department said in a statement that it is investigating whether JetBlue's handling of Flight 504 violated the department's three-hour limit on how long airlines can hold passengers in planes on tarmac or face fines.

The department is also looking into several other possible extended tarmac delays of more than three hours, the statement said.

JetBlue spokeswoman Alison Croyle declined to comment on the pilot's remarks or whether the airline had arrangements in place in case of a diversion to Bradley.

"We are conducting an investigation and we are prepared to support the DOT's investigation," Croyle said.